How to Gain Weight With Protein Shakes

If you strength train, drinking protein shakes can help you put on muscle.

Struggling to gain weight is a difficult issue for some folks. The health and fitness community doesn’t pay it much attention because so many more people are on a mission to lose weight, and a common perception is that you can gain by simply eating whatever you want. However, that isn’t true for everyone, and you’ll gain more fat than muscle if you don’t eat healthfully. To gain gradually and wisely, try adding protein shakes to your diet.

Supplement, Don't Replace

Protein shakes and other high-protein foods tend to be especially filling. According to a 2008 article published in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition", protein is more closely associated with feelings of satiety than either carbohydrates or fats. That’s why it’s important to supplement your diet with shakes rather than use them to replace meals, especially if you get full easily. Try drinking a shake as a mid-morning snack every day or sipping one along with lunch or dinner.

Make a Plan

How quickly do you want to gain weight? The answer to that question will determine how many calories your daily shake should contain. Consuming about 500 extra calories per day will let you gain a pound per week, and an extra 250 calories per day will lead to gaining half that. When shopping, pick shakes that have your target calorie count per serving or make them yourself with the aid of an online calorie counter. Keep in mind that a weekly weight gain of 1 to 2 pounds is safe.

Putting on Muscle

When you gain weight, it’s healthiest to put on some lean muscle mass as opposed to just body fat. Drinking protein shakes can help you do that, but as Rice University notes, extra protein intake does not equal extra muscle gain. To develop the muscle, you’ll need to strength train on a regular basis. Since strength training doesn’t burn many calories, it’s not likely to prevent you from gaining the weight you want, but it will help prevent your body from putting it all on as fat. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing strength workouts two or three times per week.

Balance Your Diet

Although it might be tempting, don’t go bonkers with cake, cookies, steaks and other high-calorie and high-fat foods. They may throw off your metabolism, raise your triglyceride levels and rob you of much-needed vitamins and minerals. You need a balanced, nutritious diet to gain weight in a healthy way, and that means eating whole and natural foods from every main food group. You can add extra calories to your shakes with nut or seed butters, cocoa powder, bananas, protein powder, yogurt or milk, but be careful to monitor your overall protein intake as well. The Mayo Clinic suggests that healthy adults need no more than 50 to 175 grams daily.

About the Author

Carly Schuna is a Wisconsin-based professional writer, editor and copy editor/proofreader. She has worked with hundreds of pieces of fiction, nonfiction, children's literature, feature stories and corporate content. Her expertise on food, cooking, nutrition and fitness information comes from years of in-depth study on those and other health topics.